$100 in 1971 is worth $669 in 2021,
because prices increased 569.1% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$669
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
569.1%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$669
Price difference ($100 base)
$569
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1971 → 2021
$669
$100 in 2021 → 1971
$14.95
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2021
Between 1971 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 569.1%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2021: the 1971 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 50 years.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
Every 1971 amount converts to 2021 at the same ratio, 6.69: $1,000 becomes
$6,691, and $10,000 becomes $66,906.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2021
$1.00
$6.69
$5.00
$33.45
$10.00
$66.91
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$335
$100
$669
$500
$3,345
$1,000
$6,691
$5,000
$33,453
$10,000
$66,906
$100,000
$669,062
$1,000,000
$6,690,617
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2021
Between 1971 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 1355.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 98.0%, against 569.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$669
Medical care
5.50%
$1,455
Energy
4.49%
$899
Housing
4.08%
$739
Food
3.93%
$688
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.81%
$649
Transportation
3.59%
$584
Apparel
1.38%
$198
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2021 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1971, at end
1971–1980
8.21%
103.5%
$203
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$323
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$425
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$538
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$639
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$669
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $376 by
1995, on its way to $669 in 2021; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $669; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2021: $100 is worth $669 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2021/